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St. Alphonsus Ligouri: Doctor of the Church
(1696-1787)
As a young man, Alphonsus was a highly successful lawyer. This all changed when he overlooked a bit of evidence that lost him an important legal case and cost his client a large sum of money. It was the last time Alphonsus entered a courtroom. On August 28, 1723, he left his profession for good and from that day on dedicated his life to serving Jesus.
After establishing the Redemptorist order, St. Alphonsus developed a practice to help his priests and brothers imitate Christ and grow in virtue. This practice involved focusing on one specific virtue each month of the year. The twelve spiritual virtues that Alphonsus chose for the Redemptorists were the following:
- faith
- hope
- charity
- love of neighbor
- poverty
- chastity
- obedience
- humility
- mortification
- recollection
- prayer
- self-denial/love of the cross
These twelve spiritual virtues were the foundation of Redemptorist spirituality.
This spiritual practice designed by Alphonsus can be a great help to all of us. All we need to do is choose one fault or sin that is preventing us from deeper union with Jesus and for a month or so work on eliminating it. Once we have conquered it we can move on to another sin or vice that we would like to eliminate. Before you know it you will be growing in virtue.
Give it a try and see where it leads you.
God bless!